Analyst’s latest cringe-worthy remark costs him job
Coach’s Corner with Don Cherry during “Hockey Night in Canada” has always been must-see TV in the hockey world. Players, reporters, fans and everyone else in the sport gathered in front of the TV between periods to hear what might come out of Cherry’s mouth.
They could never be sure whether it would be poignant or cringe-worthy.
“He’s that old school guy with a diehard passion for the game and for Canada,” said former NHL player Tom Laidlaw. “If he was in the arena, you wanted to see him. He was a celebrity. And when we were in Canada, we gathered around the TV when he was on because it was a thrill to say something good about you.”
The problem was the same Cherry who could grow emotional telling a story about a severely injured youth player or about soldiers playing road hockey in a war zone could make comments that sometimes came across as xenophobic.
His 34-year run on “Coach’s Corner” ended Monday when he was fired, two days after he made a racist remark accusing immigrants of not observing the Canadian tradition of wearing poppies to honor the country’s military heroes.
“You people ... love our way of life, love our milk and honey,” Cherry said. “At least you could pay a couple of bucks for poppies or something like that. These guys paid for your way of life that you enjoy in Canada.”
His network and the NHL both came out with strong statements against what Cherry had said.
Cherry was regularly uncomplimentary of how some European players played the game. He also once referred to Winnipeg Jets assistant coach Alpo Suhonen as “some kind of dog food.”
Cherry always said what he thought, regardless of consequences. He called Penguins star Sidney Crosby a “hot dog” because he didn’t like him sliding on his knees to celebrate a goal. He didn’t like Capitals star Alex Ovechkin’s celebration after he scored his 50th goal.
Cherry’s supporters have taken note that it seems particularly cruel he was fired on Canada’s Remembrance Day.
It wasn’t a mystery why Cherry kept his job in the face of much controversy. In 2004, CBC television held a vote to determine the greatest Canadian ever, and Cherry finished seventh, four spots behind Pierre Trudeau and three spots
ahead of Wayne Gretzky.
Toronto Star columnist Bruce Arthur called for Cherry to be fired after Saturday’s comment. But he also said Cherry is “as close as we have to a high priestess in hockey in a country that is obsessed with hockey.”
“(Cherry) connects very well with a segment of Canada’s population: the Caucasian middle- or upper-middleclass adult English-speaking male who likes tough sports,” Eloy Rivas Sanchez, a professor of sociology and anthropology at Carleton University, told USA TODAY Sports. “And he connects to them for a reason: This segment of the population is part of a generation of immigrants who do not think of themselves as immigrants. This part of the population believe that Canadian history began after their ancestors arrived during the European settlement.”
Rivas Sanchez said Cherry isn’t representative of a typical Canadian. “Don Cherry has outspoken manners; he dresses in a flamboyant way; his political views are conservative; he is judgmental of people’s looks and ways of life, and very opinionated,” Rivas Sanchez said. “So he pretty much represents the opposite of what a ‘regular’ Canadian is about.”
Arthur said Cherry “has never been bigger than the game but at times it felt like he was.He was part of our national furniture.”
Before Cherry was let go, Arthur predicted his dismissal would spark a national conversation.
“It will be a cultural war conversation now, not just a hockey conversation,” Arthur said. “We sailed past that a long time ago.”